Y'all - Southerners, Politically Correct Before Their Time!

While binge-watching the HGTV channel recently, catching up on one of my favorite shows, Fixer Upper, I noticed a change in Joanna and Chip’s usage of words. I was down with a summer cold, and when I don’t feel well my go-to strategy is to watch mindless entertainment on TV, to which I’m sure most of you reading this can relate.

Being raised a reader, and subsequently translating that love of words into writing, I’m always paying attention to vocabulary, and getting lost in the etymology and evolution of words in the English language. Add that obsession to my roots in Texas, and you will see the rationale for my blog post.

This brings me back to my binge-watching of Chip and Joanna Gaines on Fixer Upper. I noticed that between season one and season two, both hosts switched from using “y’all” to saying, “you guys.” I thought to myself, “Wait a minute, this is weird.”

Once my brain started spinning, there was no stopping it, and ultimately, I decided that in this day and age of “politically correct,” and the nanosecond changing of terminology, Southerners actually were ahead of their time– waaaaaayyyyyy ahead – with the creation of the contraction “Y’all.” Think about it, it’s PERFECT! It’s gender neutral, unlike “you guys,” which even I find offensive to be referred to as, because I’m not a guy, I’m a girl.

So, there you go! Y’all feel free to get your Southern on and be politically correct when referring to a group of people. It’s even more useful when the group is mixed gender!

Y’all have a great day!

XOXO - Tiff

P.S. The plural of y’all is “all y’all.” :-]]]]